his forces surrounded the city. An assault against the wall on the second day of the siege failed, and after several days in which the defenders made a number of successful sorties against his forces, Vespasian decided to prosecute the siege with vigour. The Roman army then began building a siege ramp against the city walls, and when these works were disrupted by the Jews, Vespasian set 160 engines, catapults and ballistas, backed by lightly armed troops, slingers and archers, to dislodge the defenders from the walls. These were in turn met with repeated sallies by the besieged, but work on the ramp continued, raising it to the height of the battlements and forcing Ben-Matityahu to have the walls themselves raised. Ben-Matityahu had Yodfat's limited supply of water rationed before the siege began. The Romans had heard of this and began to use their artillery to target efforts to draw water, hoping to exacerbate an already difficult situation and bring a swift end to the siege. The Jews confounded these expectations by wringing out their clothes over the battlements until the walls were running with water, leading the Romans to believe they had some hidden supply of water. According to Josephus, this had the double effect of strengthening Roman resolve to take the city by force and the defenders' resolve to fight, hoping to die by the sword rather than thirst or starvation. With the completion of the assault ramp, Vespasian ordered a battering ram brought up against the wall. Various stratagems were used by the defenders against the ram, including lowering sacks filled with chaff to receive its blows (until these were torn away by the Romans) and sallying forth and setting fire to the ram. Josephus also chronicles an incident in which one of the defenders, renowned for his strength, cast a huge stone on the ram from above, breaking off its head. Nevertheless, the attempts to batter down the wall continued. When Vespasian himself was wounded by a defender's dart, the Romans were so incensed that they continued their bombardment of the wall throughout the night. By morning a breach had been created and the Romans were ready to assault the walls. The besieged, however, charged through the breach, and when the Roman attempted to scale the walls, scalding oil was poured down upon them from above and they were beaten back. Vespasian's next ploy was to